October 7, 2009 (FinancialWire) — The new LONGBOW Fire Control Radar Block III system hardware and operational software successfully completed the first half of initial flight tests on an AH-64D Apache attack helicopter.

The U.S. Army conducted the tests at the Yuma Proving Grounds in southern Arizona. The new system is being developed by LONGBOW Ltd. Liability company, a joint venture of Northrop Grumman Corp. (NYSE: NOC) and Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT).

The flight test evaluated systems designed by Northrop Grumman, including the radar mode responsible to identify and classify moving and non-moving armored vehicular targets. These stationary and moving target detection and targeting radar modes have been cleared for the next phase of flight testing later this fall by a U.S. Army field evaluation team. The remaining flight test modes, scheduled through September 2009, focused on air surveillance and terrain mapping modes, which are designed by Lockheed Martin.

The LONGBOW Fire Control Radar system enables the Apache LONGBOW to rapidly search, detect, locate, classify, prioritize and engage both moving and stationary targets. The LONGBOW system, as currently configured by the U.S. Army, consists of the LONGBOW fire control radar; the AGM-114L fire-and-forget radar frequency LONGBOW Hellfire millimeter wave-guided missile; the all-digital M299 launcher; and the AN/APR-48A Radio Frequency Interferometer for the AH-64D Apache helicopter. The Army plans to upgrade the entire Apache helicopter fleet to the Block III configuration.

The $140 million LONGBOW Block III development program was awarded to the LONGBOW LLC in 2005. The first test units were delivered to the U.S. Army in October 2008 with production deliveries scheduled to begin in 2011. Initial operational capability is planned for 2012.

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